As Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander hits out at spending billions on replacing Trident, other senior politicians have added their voices to the growing criticism of government plans for new nuclear weapons.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) needs to do “consistently better” in improving cost management and reducing delays in the delivery of its major equipment projects according to the government's financial watchdog.

The UK's coalition government insists that independence for Scotland would not result in the UK abandoning its nuclear weapons even though finding alternatives to the current nuclear bases on the Clyde estuary would have a “huge cost” and would be an “enormous exercise”.

The UK's Trident nuclear submarines could not be rebased at the Devonport naval dockyard in Plymouth for safety reasons if an independent Scotland orders the fleet to leave, according to a report from Scottish CND.

An independent inquiry into the implications of the Government’s Trident Alternatives Review for the economy of Barrow-in-Furness – the location of the BAE Systems shipyard where new submarines to replace the current Trident submarines would be built – has concluded that the town is not facing a ‘Trident or nothing’ choice for protecting local jobs.

Scottish independence could result in nuclear disarmament being imposed upon the United Kingdom for an indeterminate period, according to a report published by the UK Parliament's Scottish Affairs Committee.

The proposed corporate merger between BAE Systems and EADS has collapsed as a result of the failure of the governments involved in the deal – Germany, France and the United Kingdom – to reach agreement on operating arrangements for the new merged company.

Claims that Scotland would lose thousands of jobs if the Trident nuclear weapons system is taken out of service or moved elsewhere have been thrown into question following an admission by the Ministry of Defence that only 520 civilian jobs at HM Naval Base Clyde are dependent on Trident.